New Digital Payment Platform from American Express

American Express today unveiled a digtal payment and commerce platform to address the changing ways consumers interact and exchange money - with one another and with merchants. Dubbed Serve, consumers can make purchases and person-to-person payments online via mobile phones, and at merchants accepting American Express cards. While this is not an alternative to merchants existing payment processing solutions, it could act as a good supplement.

“We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences. To encourage a broad cross-section of people to experience the benefits and convenience of Serve, we are working with a range of partners to integrate Serve as a payment method and deliver customized offers, and we will waive most consumer fees for the next six months,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express.

Payments are the primary focus of the consumer-focused Serve platform, but a number of American Express partners will use the platform to deliver offers. Three of the first are Ticketmaster, Concur and Flipswap. Ticketmaster will offer Serve as a platform for customers to make and collect payments toward ticket purchases from other customers. Concur will utilize Serve as an expense management and reimbursement method for transactions processed via Concur’s small business expense reporting service, Concur Breeze. Flipswap will utilize Serve to issue refunds more quickly to consumers who sell or trade in their old mobile and cell phones for reuse or recycling.

“A cornerstone of the long-term vision for Serve is developing partnerships with commerce, gaming, entertainment, and social networking organizations,” said Mr. Schulman. Partnerships, with players such as Ticketmaster, Concur and Flipswap will introduce Serve to new customers and help build scale. These companies have loyal communities of customers, and we are thrilled to partner with them as we grow and expand Serve's reach.”